Wed – 12/5: Today in “Toxic Nominees” – Bernard McNamee is up for a vote. Say “NO” to this environmental nightmare!

Even though an hour-long video outed this Koch-funded oil industry extremist for exactly what he is, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said“Based on my conversations I think he understands the FERC is an independent agency and must remain as such.”

Background

“If confirmed, I commit that I will be a fair, objective, and impartial arbiter in the cases and issues that would confront me as a Commissioner. My decisions will be based on the law and the facts; not politics.” – Bernard McNamee.

An hour-long video has shown up which tells us exactly what Bernie is…

For us on the other side, it’s also a very instructive and uninhibited display of the disinformation campaign against renewable energy that the Koch-funded Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) plans to unleash on the public. (TPPF is also supported by Chevron, ExxonMobil, fossil-fuel shills, and GEO Group, the private prison industry giant). U.S. Senator Ted Cruz formerly headed TPPF’s Center for Tenth Amendment Studies.

In his own words, you can hear, (or read below a substantial transcription) of what this candidate will do if he’s voted onto FERC. McNamee’s comments are in RED.

(We give serious thanks to Desmogblog, who’ve already transcribed most of the best bits, because there’s every chance this video will disappear soon…)

Roberts, vice president of TPPF, opening address:…I’m Kevin Roberts, the executive vice president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Thank you so much for being with us. This is one of those late afternoon sessions… that’s not only going to keep you awake but you’re going to want to run out of these doors and take some action…Title of our session is “Life Powered“, how fossil fuels impact life today and what we’re going to focus on today is a reset campaign of ours, that started as “Fueling Freedom” and was prompted by this terrible idea called the “Clean Power Plan“. We planned a role in helping to modify that plan significantly and what we decided was that, as we did some polling and some focus groups, we realized that the problem was much more extensive than just in public policy. The problem extended to schools, both K through 12 schools and higher education. the problem extended to the media, the problem extended to the policy makers, and we realized that we needed to be active on all of those fronts,PLUS we also needed our wonderful litigation center at the Foundation to feel empowered, shall we say, to take action on this issue.

But most of all, if you want to know what the number one goal of “Life Powered” is to change an incorrect narrative about energy and environment policy. It is to make that narrative one in which every person in this country understands the role that energy plays in their lives and that they don’t think that fossil fuels are bad because we all rely on them.

So whether we’re talking about a family in the Rio Grande Valley that owns a business that needs that additional money each money because, from their utility bill, because there are fossil fuels providing for that, or we’re talking about, as we see in one of our videos, a family in the developing world, that relies on access to abundant reliable energy. This project is not about schools, it’s not about the media, it’s not about policy, it’s not about attorneys.

It’s about individual people and our side needs to tell the story better about the role that fossil fuels play for us, and the role, generally speaking, that abundant reliable energy plays. Because if we fail in the policy-making arena to tell the story about people, we’re going to fail, when the time comes, to actually enact that policy.

So what you’re going to hear today from two experts (Bernard McNamee, Jason Johnson) in the field, is an assessment of reality now, one of the mantras of the Foundation is that we read reality truthfully, so part of that story is …not going to be pretty, but we also want to provide a path to a much brighter future…because only several hundred million people around the world have been lifted out of poverty by having access to abundant reliable energy…That’s the story we need to tell, not just because Texas is an energy-producing state, but because it is the proper story for human flourishing…so when you rush out of these doors…inspired and excited, ready to go into action,let our next step be to tell the proper story about energy, and secondly, let that story be about how each of our lives is benefited is enhanced, by access to abundant reliable energy….”

McNamee (on his first day as an employee of TPPF, went on stage to narrate a power point discussion):…We’re going to reframe the national discussion. What this is really about is changing the hearts and minds of the American people about what they think about energy and to start believing in it again…understanding that fossil fuels are not something dirty, something we have to move and get away from, but understand that they are the key not only to our prosperity, but to the quality of life, but also to a clean environment. What do you think that powers the sanitation system, the clean water system, that runs things that clean our air, it’s energy, it’s 24-hour energy, it’s produced in a very concentrated source in coal, oil and natural gas….This is not a new idea that TFFF that we’re dealing with The “Fueling Freedom” project… “Fueling Freedom” book that Kathleen Hartnett White wrote, was a very important foundation for what we’re doing. It sets the intellectual foundation for what we’re trying to do.

McNamee (cont.): We also have the Center for American Future, the litigation arm, which has been is going out fighting, whether it’s the Endangered Species Act, challenging the Clean Power Plan, using that litigation arm to order to make the case in court about things that are important, to win victories for “freedom” and to win victories for private property holders. And you’ll notice something.. that’s something the left has been very good at doing. The NRDC,…the Environment defense Fund, they’re the ones in court, they’re going out there, they’re battling and they’re making their case in the courts and they’re winning. We’ve started to push back and now. we’re starting to win. The Clean Power Plan was a great example of that. I had the real honor, of when working for General Paxton, to help lead his team in challenging the Clean Power Plan (and) the the Waters of the United States (Clean Water Rule)…and when I was in the administration under Secretary Perry and President Trump to really see the Clean Power Plan put to death….

“There’s an organized propaganda campaign against fossil fuels. We all know it. We all see it. The problem is, it’s taken hold. You talk to millennials. You talk to housewives. You talk to people in corporate boardrooms now. They’re all buying into this!!!”

The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s own polling shows Americans favor wind and solar power over fossil fuels

Johnson: “… as you can see the source of energy that had the most positive rating throughout the country, was solar. It just feels good. It’s warm, right? Followed by wind power.”

(They had some powerpoint graphics to show how the environmental movement has managed to brainwash the masses.)

Johnson:“Point being, fossil fuels are a part of the past, and so long as we continue to allow it to be framed that way, we will be behind the eight ball so to speak, and that is something that we must change.”

Bernard McNamee: Renewable energy “screws up the whole physics of the grid”

McNamee: “Renewables, when they come on and off, it screws up the whole physics of the grid,” McNamee said. “So when people want to talk about science, they ought to talk about the physics of the grid and know what real science is, and that is how do you keep the lights on? And it’s with fossil fuels and nuclear.”

Johnson: “…we could go change public opinion in a state or in a region or even nationwide with the right amount of money,” and said the TPPF could provide “persuasive messaging to feed out to all of the different people” the next time a disaster like the Exxon Valdez or BP oil spills occurs, or gas prices increase.”

Bernard McNamee agreed on the need for a pro-fossil fuels campaign that targets kids with misinformation, including his own son.

TPPF’s Roberts:“… this started as Fueling Freedom and was prompted by this just terrible idea called the Clean Power Plan. We played a role in helping to modify that plan significantly.… what we decided as we did some polling and some focus groups, we realized that the problem was much more extensive than just in public policy. The problem extended to schools, both K through 12 schools and higher education.”

(The topic came up again during the question and answer session that followed the presentation.)

Audience member: “Yes, one of the most indoctrinated groups of the American public opinion that you’re trying to change is coming out of the elementary and high schools. What part of your initiative is going to be directed to do something about that?”

McNamee: “I think you’re absolutely right we need to focus on that, and that’s something I know that’s been talked about, but we have not developed the plan for that” McNamee responded. “And that’s something I think you’re absolutely right we need to focus it out and figure out how to get that counter message…”

“I know, even my son, my son I just have told you know you’re in school just, just deny it,” McNamee continued. “I don’t care if you get an F. I don’t care, and I’m proud of him because he has not made a lot of friends with certain people, but boy is he outspoken on it.”

Johnson: “I had to explain to my son the other day that Bill Nye is not actually a science guy.”

McNamee:“I had the same conversation. My son mocked the teacher for showing a video by him. It was fantastic.”

(Note: Bill Nye calls himself a science communicator, television presenter and mechanical engineer. In the latter role, he worked as an engineer for Boeing and invented a hydraulic resonance suppressor tube used on 747 airplanes. His show “Bill Nye, the Science Guy” (not “scientist”), was the subject of research that found it effective in teaching students science: those that viewed Bill Nye regularly were better able to generate explanations and extensions of scientific ideas than non-viewers. Eugenie Scott, an American physical anthropologist, a former university professor and educator who has been active in opposing the teaching of young Earth creationism and intelligent design in schools stated: “If you think Bill is popular among skeptics, you should attend a science teacher conference where he is speaking” it is standing room only. It will also be noted that mechanical engineers, with their knowledge of physics and mathematics, are welcomed into high schools to teach physical science courses.

Kathleen Hartnett White, the author of the “Fueling Freedom” book” the “the intellectual foundation” of the Texas Public Policy Foundation is, as we mentioned above, a graduate of Divinity School with absolutely no scientific education at all.

Divinity graduates are rarely, if ever, allowed to teach science to high school students.)